Why ‘Orange is the New Black’ needs our jail

NETFLIX COURTESY PHOTO | Taylor Schilling, center, and castmates in a scene from season one of ‘Orange is the New Black.’

When it was announced last week that the popular Netflix series “Orange is the New Black” was looking for mean and ugly extras on the North Fork for scenes being filmed at the Suffolk County Jail in Riverside, it begged a certain question: Why not film the show at its usual prison location?

The series, which is set at a woman’s prison, is ordinarily filmed at the now-defunct Rockland Children’s Psych Center in Orangeburg, N.Y. And scenes from the episode being filmed on the North Fork will still be shot in Orangeburg, a person familiar with the premise of the episode told northforker.com.

But other scenes from the episode, which the source confirmed is being directed by two-time Academy Award winning actress Jodie Foster, are supposed to take place at a prison in Chicago. Those scenes will be filmed at the Suffolk County Jail, our source said.

The show, which stars Taylor Schilling, Laura Prepon and Jason Biggs, often uses flashbacks to tell the origin stories of its inmates and therefore is filmed in various locations in and around New York City.

Here’s to hoping the local shoot is the episode that finally tells the Crazy Eyes’ backstory.